1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a digester in a sanitation system, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to a collapsible digester.
2. Brief Description of the Related Art
Digesters are commonly utilized in sanitation systems to treat wastewater streams of black water and grey water. Black water is a wastewater that includes fecal matter and is discharged from a source, such as a toilet. Grey water is wastewater that is discharged from a shower, lavatory, dishwasher, or kitchen sink, and thus may include food or grease. Digesters are usually tanks or other vessels provided with baffles or filter plates to remove solids from the wastewater and provide a holding area where the biological activity of digestion occurs. Digestion is the biological decomposition of organic matter present in the biosolids of wastewater. The biosolids are digested under either aerobic or anaerobic conditions until the volatile content has been reduced to the point at which the solids are relatively inoffensive. Gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen sulfide, are produced as the waste is digested.
Digesters have been constructed from various materials, such as concrete, steel, fiberglass, and plastic. A problem encountered with current digester construction is the amount of space required for shipping and storage. Because the digesters usually are formed from a rigid material and as one piece, they are incapable of being folded into a compact structure. This contributes to higher freight costs and additional storage requirements at warehouses and on installers' trucks.
To this end, a need exists for a wastewater digester which can be shipped and stored in a collapsed condition. It is to such a wastewater digester that the present invention is directed.